Free Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) by Sophie Davis Page A

from above,
sealing her in alone with the agony. Spots danced in her line of
sight, creating bizarre constellations on the dome above. Cressa
heard a faint click as the two halves of the chamber locked
together. The sound echoed in her mind, taunting her. She would
never escape. She would never again know the world outside of the
plastic and pain. It was just her and the savagery, trapped
together forever.
    Cressa’s lids fluttered several more times
before closing for good. Her mind couldn’t handle it. Another
torturous jolt of pain wracked every neuron at once, and then the
world turned black.
     
    “ Welcome back, Cadet
Karmine,” Dr. Masterson’s cool voice said.
    Cressa blinked rapidly until the doctor’s
face came into focus. The chamber lid was retracted again, and the
doctor was leaning over Cressa, wiping the goo from her forehead
with a warm cloth.
    “ That did not take long at
all. I am very impressed by your body’s ability to adapt to the
foreign genetic material,” the doctor continued. She glanced up,
addressing someone, presumably Leslie, on the other side of the
room. “The smooth acceptance might be somewhat attributed to the
fact both of Cadet Karmine’s gifts were from the same source,
though only the telekinetic abilities were natural.”
    Cressa turned her head to find Leslie
staring at the monitor on the wall, her hands clasped behind her
back.
    “ Is that normal, ma’am?
For all of the abilities to come from the same source?” Leslie
asked.
    Expecting the doctor to admonish Leslie for
asking questions without prompting, Cressa was surprised when Dr.
Masterson replied without hesitation. Then again, this was sort of
a lesson for Leslie, with Cressa as the live subject material.
    “ No. It is very rare, in
fact. The source needs to be exceptionally powerful for the
abilities to pass successfully to a recipient, since some of the
potency will always be forfeited during the transference process.
Few sources have more than one talent, and even fewer have more
than one that is strong enough for our uses. So, most cadets
receive abilities from multiple donors.
    “ Cadet Karmine is
fortunate that the source I used for her telekinetic abilities also
has strong, albeit created, light manipulating powers. Because of
degradation we’ve seen in the past when implanting created powers,
I added an enhancer to the formula to counteract the weakening of
the ability. In our current test subjects, this has proven quite
successful. I am very interested to see if this holds true with
Cadet Karmine.”
    Cressa hated how the doctor and Leslie were
talking about her as though she weren’t present. It was bizarre,
and just plain rude. Nonetheless, Cressa was also grateful for the
new information. This was the most she’d learned about the
injections by far.
    Until that moment, Cressa hadn’t known that
her newfound abilities came from another individual, who they were
calling the “source.” Truthfully, she hadn’t much considered where
they came from, simply assuming the abilities were generated in a
lab somewhere. The more Cressa thought about it, the ickier she
felt. Someone else’s “genetic material” was inside of her, someone
else’s DNA. Someone else’s blood was giving Cressa talents.
    Who was her source? Where was her source?
How many sources were there? Where did they come from? What did
they get in return?
    Although Cressa didn’t know the exact number
of students currently enrolled at the Institute, it was enough that
Dr. Masterson would need a large number of sources to provide for
them all. Did the Dame recruit those donors? Did they apply to
become sources for the Privileged, just as Cressa’s parents applied
for her admission?
    Even if she found the nerve to ask, Cressa
doubted that Dr. Masterson would give her straight answers to the
new questions buzzing inside her head like annoying flies. She
wished Leslie would press the doctor for information, since her
inquiries would come